


dear maria, count me in

by landy67



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Canon, Sad, sorry i was listening to my old punk music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27599237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/landy67/pseuds/landy67
Summary: twenty-five years is a long time to miss. but what did luke miss exactly?he broke a promise."i see your names in lights we could make you a star" - dear maria, count me in by all time low
Relationships: Luke Patterson/OFC
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	dear maria, count me in

**Author's Note:**

> omg im so sorry i just needed to write something to get out of a school slump and take a break from classes and this came out im so sORRY it was kinda rushed bc im slammed with finals rn sorry

He first saw her in the back of math class on the first day of freshman year in 1993. Her dark hair hung around her shoulders and over the denim straps of her dungarees and the yellow shirt she has on underneath. Sunflowers were painted on the legs of her pants and he could tell she did it based on the smudges of paint on her hands and cheeks. He can’t tear his eyes away from her as she throws her head back and laughs at something the girl next to her said and it was at that moment Luke Patterson determined that he needed to get to know her.

It took him three months to gather the courage to talk to her. It was a simple question, just asking her if she did the homework from the night before. A light pink flush covered her cheeks and she sheepishly informed him that she didn’t. Luke slid his homework wordlessly over to her and she stared up at him with those big brown eyes. He shrugged and faced the chalkboard with a bored look on his face. She hurriedly copied down the work and quietly thanked him, passing it back to him with a small grin.

“Hey, you’re an artist, right? I saw some of your work at the art show,” he said suddenly. “It was really good.”

“Wow, thanks. I didn’t think anyone but parents went to those,” she joked and he realized that he loved seeing her smile.

“I’m in a band and we’re trying to make a logo. I don’t know...maybe you could help?”

“Do I get to listen to you play?” she hummed.

“Yeah! Yeah, of course. Anytime you want,” he stammered out. “Do you...like rock?”

“There’s a lot of things I like. I guess you’ll just have to find out.”

Mrs. Hermann called the class to attention before Luke could respond and he sighed, turning back to the board once more when something hit his shoulder and bounced against his notebook.

_ My name is Maria, by the way. And I love rock. _

And that was the beginning of forever.

She easily befriended the band. Reggie absolutely loved her ability to crack jokes at everything, Alex appreciated her ability to keep Luke levelheaded, and Bobby enjoyed her easy going presence at practices. She would paint in the corner of the garage and listen to them, adding her own opinion here and there. Every time she spoke, Luke fell more and more in love with his muse.

Two years later and they found themselves wrapped in their own world.

“One day,” he whispered into the quiet of the night with his arms wrapped around her. “Sunset Curve will be the biggest band in the world and you’ll be a famous artist and we can spend every night like this together.”

“That sounds perfect,” she hummed, her eyes falling shut to the call of sleep.

“One day I’m gonna marry you, Maria Villanueva,” he murmured as he pressed a kiss to her dark hair. “I promise.”

Two years of a whirlwind teen romance filled with stolen kisses under the bleachers, petty fights over stupid things caused by hormones, and plenty of nights sneaking into Maria’s room turned into a broken, empty promise thanks to one bad hot dog. 

Alex, Reggie, and Luke get taken out of that dark room and find themselves staring back at Julie Molina. And when they thought life was over, it began again.

It had been twenty-five  _ years. _ Maria was forty-two and had a whole new life that wasn’t him, Luke told himself on the nights when the silence became a deafening roar in his mind. He stopped himself from looking her up many times and found himself content with just sitting on the couch of his old home and watching as his mom cleaned and cooked and did all the things he wish he had stayed for.

And then Julie, kind and thoughtful Julie, shows up in front of his childhood home clutching the song he wrote years ago for his mom and his world comes to a screeching halt once more.

Because they ask Julie to come back a week later and Luke comes with her. Tucked under Julie’s arm is a box of things Luke collected to give back to his parents but the girl who answers the door is certainly  _ not _ either one of his parents. The girl...no, young woman, stared at Julie with an amused look on her face. There was something so strikingly familiar about the wide, bright brown eyes that stared at his friend and the set of her jaw.

“Hi! You must be Julie. Grams and gramps told me about you. Come on in,” the woman greeted. Julie glanced back at Luke, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion. He could read the unspoken question on her mind.  _ I thought you didn’t have any other siblings. _

“Julie, it’s so lovely to see you again,” Mitch said as she entered the living room. “We hope you don’t mind that we invited Ellie to join. We just want her to know Luke as best as she can.”

A memory flashed across the older man’s mind of a young, scared teen soaked by the rain and holding a protective hand over the growing bump on her stomach. Maria tried to hide her pregnancy through her grief but her parents kicked her out and she ended up on the doorstep of the people she never expected to gain help from.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I brought some stuff of Luke’s I found,” Julie announced. She held out the box and Ellie gently took it, her brown eyes gleaming with something that looked like joy.

“Thank you so much. I never got to meet my dad,” Ellie explained. She sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to her, indicating for Julie to join her. Ellie handed her a photo and Julie tilted it so Luke could see it easily. He nearly burst into tears right then and there.

His Maria was smiling up at the grainy photo, a small bundle of blankets clutched in her arms. Emily and Mitch were sitting next to her, wide smiles on their faces.

“Mom died in a car crash when I was eight. We were already living here so Grams and Gramps became my guardians. They made sure that my dad lived on with me. Here’s a photo of me trying to play one of my dad’s old guitars he left behind. Apparently, it was too big for a five year old.”

Julie could feel and hear Luke weeping next to her and she wished she could help her friend but she had to pretend he wasn’t there and instead studied the photos of the girl sitting next to her.

“Mom told me that even though she had me young and my dad died before he could meet me, he would have loved me so much. Thank you, Julie, for giving me a piece of him.”

Twenty-five years he had missed and twenty-five years he would never gain.

A broken promise and an eternity of pain.

And the realization of all that he missed came crashing down.


End file.
